Coney Island Mermaid Parade: fun with a cause

The Mermaid Parade in Coney Island on Saturday had its usual array of sequined mermaid tails, long trains of fish netting, tiny clamshell bikinis and strategically placed plastic swordfish. But this year’s celebration also included a large number of performers with a cause.

“This is what your view of Coney Island is going to look like,” shouted a man who was dressed in black spandex and carrying a handful of fake dollar bills as he pointed at cardboard boxes painted gray and made to look like high-rise buildings. Then a performance artist known as the Reverend Billy and his backup group, the Church of Stop Shopping, burst into a gospel song decrying development.

Kate Bartoldus, development director for Coney Island U.S.A., a nonprofit group that runs the Coney Island Sideshow School and the Coney Island Museum and which organizes the parade, said preservation had become a theme among parade participants who fear that the quirky character of their seaside neighborhood will be ruined by developers who are planning large residential and commercial projects.

“We’ve certainly seen it before, but there does seem to be more of that this year,” said Ms. Bartoldus, 30. “It hasn’t been as urgent as it is now. The political stuff makes us realize how precious it is.”

More people registered to march than in past parades, but the crowd on the sidelines was not as large as the one last year, when the parade celebrated its 25th anniversary, Ms. Bartoldus said. But what it lacked in numbers, it more than made up in exhibitionism.

This year’s King Neptune and Queen Mermaid, William Talen, the Reverend Billy’s real name, and his wife, Savitri Durkee, embodied the spirit of the parade.

“They want to turn Coney Island into a retail zone,” said Ms. Durkee, 36, who was slathered in silver body paint and had fake plants entwined in her hair. “We don’t want Coney Island to look like Houston or L.A. or just anyplace.” She said she plans to stage a four-day hunger strike this week inside a Coney Island store to draw attention to the proposed development.

This year’s sea creature participants included the Global Warming Mermaids, who shouted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, this boiling water’s got to go!” There was also a pirate on a Segway, a computer technician named Jonathan Gleich, 49, who said he saves gas by commuting on the two-wheeled vehicle that he drove through the parade, a fake parrot perched on the handlebars.

Political activism is a relatively new element in the parade, which is timed to mark the start of summer, organizers said.

The parade’s M.C., who would only identify himself as Chris T., said, “Does it seem like there are more hippies this year?”

Even participants who embraced the more flashy side of the event, like the three Pontani Sisters — burlesque dancers who led the march — said this year was about celebrating and defending the parade tradition.

“You have to cherish every minute,” said Angie Pontani, 28, who was this year’s Miss Cyclone, as she wiggled down Surf Avenue in her skintight mermaid tail. “It’s very special because who knows what will happen next year.”

Some said the activist bent of this year’s Mermaid Parade had nothing to do with the true spirit of the place.

“They know nothing about Coney Island; they have to live the life,” said a man who called himself Rabbi Abraham Abraham. He said he was a member of the Ice Breakers, a group that swims in the ocean during winter and has performed acrobatics and feats of strength in the parade for 24 years. He refused to divulge his age, except to claim that he was “the oldest senior citizen in Coney Island that’s still active.”

No matter what changes development may bring to the neighborhood, he said he believed the parade would endure. “It’s a fun parade, and I do believe all things are going to come together for the good,” he said.

By ANNIE CORREAL - NY Times